This past weekend was a big one for me. For the past few months, I’ve been training with my son Andrew (age 21) to compete in an Olympic distance triathlon (Lake Meridian triathlon). That is a .95 mile swim in a lake, 25 mile bike, and 6 mile run. We were joined by a friend from church, Kyle Summers. Quite a bit of time went into the preparation, and then at 4:30am, we were up and heading to the race early Saturday morning.

Each of us were a bit nervous about various segments for different reasons. I was concerned that my old Bianchi bike would hold together for the race. I overheard a number of comments from other triathletes like, “Wow, there’s an old school Bianchi!” and “I haven’t seen one of those in years!” Andrew was concerned about the swim and Kyle was concerned about the run. As it ended up, all went very well, we pushed our bodies to the limit of what we could do, and all of us finished the race with respectable times. It was fun that for a good portion of the bike ride, we were right with each other. (Yes, the old man was able to keep up with the young bucks.) The euphoria of crossing the finish line, pumped full of endorphines, with a grateful sense of completion, was pretty special. Doing it with my son was even better.

By the time we got home, the muscles were letting us know they had been pushed beyond reason and were shutting down. However, the weekend was not over. I still had a sermon to finish preparing and then preach the next day. Early Sunday morning, I was off again, this time to Snohomish, to preach through the first 19 verses of Jude. Graciously, God gave me strength, and that also went well, although the sermon went longer than I would have liked.

Later that day, Holly (who is working this week at a local camp leading the prayer focus for the camp that is focused on those with disabilities) and I reconnected, prayed with each other and the family, prayed with friends going through struggle with cancer, and  prepped for the week ahead. It was a good weekend that reminded me of 1 Timothy 4:7-8: “Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Praise God for strength physically and spiritually to continue on in His service.